the other day i was watch ongc cup which is the professional football league of india known as the I leage, and i realized that how far indian football has come and how behind we are in football. i saw a match in b-leage between abahoni and muktigudha and i saw ongc cup match between mohanbagar and jct (i think thats the name) and i was amazed by the difference in the game. the level of football in bangladesh is really bad compared to even football in india. we dont have regular football. i hope football federation will take the necessary steps to improve football in bangladesh so we can atleast compete with teams like india maldives.

abdulw11

January 15, 2008, 06:06 AM

There are so many problems at the Bangladesh Football Federation, it ain't gonna happen anytime soon.

Bengaliprince176

January 15, 2008, 05:08 PM

i dunno what the club level in BD like...but if u go to Kolkata, u have to see East Bengal vs Mohun Bagan ( the team u mentioned in first post) if ur a footie fan!! the atmosphere is electric!! tbh Indian football was mainly confined to West Bengal and Goa before, but foreign interest and foreign players from Nigeria, Brazil etc have made the game much more poular!

shaoun

January 16, 2008, 12:06 AM

yea the Ileague is fun to watch. i was surprised by the level of football that these teams play.

Nocturnal

January 16, 2008, 12:23 AM

i dunno what the club level in BD like...but if u go to Kolkata, u have to see East Bengal vs Mohun Bagan ( the team u mentioned in first post) if ur a footie fan!! the atmosphere is electric!! tbh Indian football was mainly confined to West Bengal and Goa before, but foreign interest and foreign players from Nigeria, Brazil etc have made the game much more poular!

The Dhaka club level football was slighty better than Kolkata until mid 90's (one reason was in '97 we won the ICC cricket tournament and qualified for the world cup cricket and all momentum shift to cricket). Abahani and Mohammedan were giants like EB and MB. Monem Munna- a former Abahani player played for East Bengal in 1991 and brought huge fame to his country. My favourite bangladesh footballer. He passed away in feb 2005 by the way.

Munna emerged as a solid defender in the Dhaka football. He was the highest paid footballer of the Dhaka league for several years. ‘He always believed that nobody can dribble past him and his power was immense. The forwards who tasted his strong tackle could understand what it was like,’ said Sabbir, once the popular striker of Dhaka league.
Munna loved to take the challenges and when in 1991 Naeemuddin, the renowned Indian coach, offered him the role of a libero for East Bengal of Kolkata, he accepted it. Naeemuddin observed that Muuna’s neat through and long passes had the power and of course accuracy. The result was that Munna became a household name of the supporters of the famous yellow and red outfit.
The popular Bengali daily ‘Anandabazar Patrika’ wrote paying their tribute to Munna that the rescuer of East Bengal in many matches has died. He served East Bengal with dignity winning two consecutive titles and one Federation Cup.

Anyways, the pride of Dhaka football is long gone. I have watched that ONGC league too in zee sports and yes they have improved a lot but still long way to go just to compete with Japan or Korea.

munna aslam shabbir they were all big superstar. people would come just to watch them. today we dont have any superstar like them. most of the people dont know name of any players in the national team. its sad to see where football has come. i think we are rank like 169 right now which is a shame.